A Basic Question. . .

[goodtaste]

Hello Guys! Can I ask a "beginner question"?
Is defrag supposed to last 3 days? I had to cancel my last one because it never ended, it went on and on, night and day. . .is there a way to "speed it up"? Will it last longer the more I delay to do another one? And finally, if I run defrag, let's say for 48 hours and stop it (to get some things done), will it pick up where it left off if I start it again the next day?
I'm sorry, I just don't know technical stuff like that, but want to learn.
Thank you! :confused:

[caperjack]

when booting you computer repietly hit the f8 key as soon as windows starts booting and go into safe mode and run it there ,also you should run scandisk first then defrag ,and not it ahouldn't take days ,a few hrs maybe,dependig on how bad it is fragmented

[Mr. M]

I'm sure you have multiple programs running in the background that kicks in periodically during the defrag. When that happens defrag waits for it, then starts over. That's why it never ends.

Close off background programs one by one and run defrag agian.

[dlh6213]

Hello Guys! Can I ask a "beginner question"? Is defrag supposed to last 3 days? I had to cancel my last one because it never ended, it went on and on, night and day. . .is there a way to "speed it up"? Will it last longer the more I delay to do another one? And finally, if I run defrag, let's say for 48 hours and stop it (to get some things done), will it pick up where it left off if I start it again the next day? I'm sorry, I just don't know technical stuff like that, but want to learn. Thank you! :confused:

Just to add to what caperjack and Mr. M said, defrag shouldn't take three days. If it does, it's because of something else running that makes it restart. When it restarts (either by you or by some program), it will start over, but will go through the part that has already been defragment rather quickly, so it's almost like starting where it left off.

How long it takes depends on the size of your drive (or partition) and how fragmented it is. The more often you do it, the less time it will take; some people say once or twice a year is enough, but in my experience it can take several hours when doing it that seldom. I do mine once or twice a month and it only takes a few minutes each time... I'd rather spend a few minutes a couple times a month than a few hours a couple of times a year.

It is best to run it from Safe Mode if you haven't done it for awhile, or if you have something running that makes it continually restart. After you run it this time in Safe Mode, try it again in 2-4 weeks in normal mode and see what happens. If it still takes a long time, you can either figure out what is making it restart, or always run it in Safe Mode.

[Catweazle]

Best trick:

Press + + then choose 'End task' for everything except explorer and systray. Then run defrag ;)

Careful how you do it, by the way. Hold down + and then tap the key once. Holding it down or tapping it twice will cause a reset.

[goodtaste]

Thank you guys! I'm going to print these pointers and try again. I have tried to defrag after I posted this question but I never got to be able to finish. Scandisk also takes forever. I will try though, in safe mode, maybe that's what I needed todo all along.
But "when you don't know is just like when you can't see," you're in the dark!
Take care. ;)

[Catweazle]

The tip I provided, goodtaste, will eliminate the need to use 'Safe mode', for most people anyway :)

[Thong_Ispector]

The only downside to killing off all apps except explorer and systray is for people on broadband...
If you kill off you firewall, spyware, adware, anti-virus to defrag...
You could leave the door wide open to other problems...Far worse problems

So, if you do go that route, manually unplug your internet...

Just a suggestion...

[Catweazle]

Good point!

[goodtaste]

Thanks guys!
I'm a beginner,s o don't give stuff that is too complicated, please. If I "kill" my other funcitons, when do I get them back, when I reboot?
Anyway, I followed the sugggestions previously given and used Safe Mode, and am happy to report that I was able to do both a scandisk and a defrag very well and it only took about 5 or 6 hours! (Considering my previous problem that is a really good amount of time!) And I will be doing it again soon, to see if the time it takes to do it shortens.
Take care! ;)

[Catweazle]

Yes, if you 'End task' the running apps on your system, they will start as normal following a reboot.

[goodtaste]

Thank you again! I am learning and that, to me, is tremendous! (When I got my first computer I used to cry like a baby because I understood nothing, and the thing was a misbehaving monster, but now I have hope.)
Take care and God bless!